A scarce issue of Speed’s map of Cheshire

An important map of Cheshire, engraved by Jodocus Hondius for John Speed's county atlas, 'The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain', first published 1611-12. It is one of the most decorative maps of the county with two royal crests held aloft by putti, armorials, a plan of Chester and galleons and sea-monsters around the Wirral. An English text on verso gives a history of the county and an extensive list of towns and villages. Most of the Speed counties are derived from Saxton's maps: here Speed has used William Smith's revisions of Saxton, and the Braun & Hogenberg plan of Chester. This example comes from the Roger Rea issue of the atlas, which was beset with disaster: according to an advert for the 1676 Bassett & Chiswell edition, ''the greatest part of an Impression, then newly Printed, [was] destroyed by the late dreadful Fire, 1666". Surviving examples of any Rea map are thus rare.